Comprised entirely of former members of the David Crowder Band, The Digital Age maintains a beating-heart belief that the Church is beautiful, diverse, creative and alive—and that these qualities should be reflected in the music that the Church and The Digital Age create.

“The Digital Age mission picks up where [David Crowder Band] left off,” guitarist/vocalist Mark Waldrop says. “It’s alt-rock that’s compelling lyrically and musically, and we’re still obsessed with the concept record. So we’re carrying over what we did before. This is all we know, to write together and work together. It feels new, but a lot of it is a carryover; it’s not too huge a departure.”

There’s much to recommend about this musical expedition, which promises to reach an audience far beyond David Crowder Band territory. “Captured” gallops along on a marching-band beat Jeremy “B-Wack” Bush cooked up in his home studio between rehearsals, while the lyric revels in broken-chains celebration: “’Cause love has come to rescue me/ Your love has come to set me free/ Your love is all I need.”

Waldrop sums up the song with a simple exclamation and explanation: “Wow! What a way to start, especially in this transition time for us. We made it; we traversed through death—that’s how it felt as a band. People talk about the resurrection of Jesus, and sometimes they forget that there’s resurrection in everything. Things die and it’s OK, because the God of resurrection gives birth to new things.”

And so let The Digital Age begin, an age that mocks its very moniker by yielding music that overflows with heart and soul—not just the kind that makes for a gliding groove or an emotive performance. Yes, there’s plenty of that to enjoy on Evening:Morning. But another brand of heart and soul also manifests itself, and it’s one Waldrop sums up with high-beam optimism:

“Our God isn’t passive and in the grave. He’s active and so we thought, ‘Let’s put the flashlight ahead of us and see what step we’re supposed to take.’ We don’t know where we’re going but we’re going somewhere and we’re trusting that God is with us every step. We’ve been given the gist; we’ve been given the songs. Now it’s time to go out into the wild, follow … and see.”